Posted on 10/19/2012 9:18:30 PM PDT by neverdem
A team of Australian scientists believe they have uncovered the cause of one of nature's most bizarre phenomenon - ball lightning.
Ball lightning is typically the size of a grapefruit and lasts up to 20 seconds.
"Ball lightning has been reported by hundreds of people, for hundreds of years and it has been a mystery," said CSIRO scientist John Lowke, lead author of a new study published in the Journal of Geophysical Research Atmospheres.
Previous theories have suggested microwave radiation, oxidising aerosols, nuclear energy, dark matter, antimatter, and even black holes as possible causes.
One recent theory suggests burning silicon that has been vaporised by a lightning strike.
To unravel the mystery Mr Lowke and colleagues at the CSIRO and the Australian National University, turned their attention to reports of ball lightning forming near windows.
"There are many observations of ball lightning appearing from a glass window either in a house (or) in the cockpit of an aircraft," he said.
"If it's burning silicon, how did it come in?"
After hitting the ground and lighting the sky, lightning strikes leave behind a trail of charged particles, or ions. In most cases, these positive and negative ions recombine in a split seconds. Any remaining ions travel down to the ground.
Mr Lowke's theory is that some of these ions can accumulate on the outside of non-conducting surfaces such as a window.
"These ions pile up and produce an electrical field which penetrate the glass," he said.
Mr Lowke says the field gives free electrons on the inside of the window enough energy to knock off electrons from surrounding air molecules, as well as release photons, creating a glowing ball.
Recreating it in the lab
"This is the first paper which gives a mathematical solution explaining the birth or initiation of ball..."
(Excerpt) Read more at au.news.yahoo.com ...
Ball lightening is no real mystery. These guys are looking for funding for something. Ionized air after the high voltage hits it forms a plasma somethimes instead being a strike it forms sheets (like cloud to cloud) or balls....closer to the ground and usually around areas with a high small particle count (think dust)
For the young, Jerry Lee Lewis sang a great rock & roll song, “Great Balls of Lighting”, about 1957. It was the third 45 record I had ever bought. Still have it in near mint condition (Sun label).
Love these stories. As the Killer would say, “Goodness, gracious, Great Balls of Fire.”
PS: Saw him twice. Once in a dual bill with Fats Domino, and then in a triple billing with Little Richard and Chuck Berry. Still had the sizzle, but Little Richard owned the theater.
I guess knowing that won’t help me protect myself from ball lightning but thanks for replying. Weird stuff!
These stories are awesome! I’ve been in plenty of lightning storms, but this ball lightning would scare the poop out of me.
I don’t know if what I saw was ball lightening but when I was a kid, I saw these little balls of light dancing in a tree across the street from my house just after a severe thunderstorm had passed. I’m sure it wasn’t sparks, there were no power lines near that tree, and it wasn’t fire, and they sure as heck were not lightning bugs. It only lasted a few seconds but it was one of the strangest things I’ve ever seen.
Happened to my Mom’s family when she was a young girl. My Mother has ALWAYS been really paranoid about lightning; not using the phone, staying in the middle of the house, etc.
Now, I know these are basic precautions, but she was always way over the top (she won’t use her cell phone during a storm..or the cordless phone)...wouldn’t let us run any water, etc. Anyway, it all made sense a few years ago when she told us about the ball of lightning that had entered the kitchen of her girlhood home, stayed awhile bouncing around on the floor, and left after destroying the phone. Apparently it was quite the experience.
Great balls of fire, Batman.
I feel a little funny about using the water during a thunderstorm too after a plumber told me that lightning unsoldered every single fitting in a house he was called to service.
Oh, it will absolutely do that. Have you heard about the problem they are having with natural gas lines? Apparently there was some kind of flexible product that they were using about 10 years ago (when my house was built..happy day), that has been failing during lightning strikes...causing the gas to ignite!
It’s happened to more than several homes around here, and they recommend having it replaced; not so easy to do with a finished lower level.
Er, no, I didn’t know about that. There is one flex line on our water heater. Installed much less than ten years ago though.
St. Elmo’s fire.
I’ve seen this once, maybe twice. The second was one evening during a thunder storm when I might have been about 10 years old. I was watching TV in my room when this fast moving 6 inch glowing ball appeared in front of the TV , bounced out of the door and down the hallway. As I rounded the doorway into the hall giving chase, I saw my older brother standing at the other end of the hall by his doorway. He related the same experience of seeing a ball appear in front of his TV and bounce out of the room. In the hall, there was only one ball and it bounced around a little and then sputtered out.
The first time, may have been ball lightening or not. It was a few years earlier on a bright and crisp cold day. I remember several people were outside at the time. It seems to me that this was some sort of holiday, maybe Thanksgiving. A glowing blue ball again about 6 inches in diameter appeared out of the sky traveling in a trajectory that you would expect of an object fired from a cannon. It struck the middle of the street in front of at least a half a dozen people and seemingly more energized it bounced upward and away disappearing over the next row of houses and trees.
I haven’t thought about these sightings in years, but they are something I’ll never forget.
And "Chicago," is it? (Shakes head, as though recovering from a daze.)
(More brightly):
I think we can modify this slightly to describe "what it feels like to receive a ZOT."
Cheers!
Cheers!
Saw ball lightning in my junior high school ca. 1968. Whole class saw it. When I looked it up in the books, the books said it didn’t exist. Since I don’t believe in mass hallucinations during a thunderstorm, I decided that books and their authors don’t know everything, and I’d best check it my self.
Don’t know if it was ball lightening, but it was an excessively humid summer evening after dark with a storm coming. I was exiting our shop, which is a remodeled old barn with a concrete block lower level and floor. There was lightening in the air at my eye level (I am 5”3”), so thick it was nearly solid. There were more intense streaks inside the mass of light. It sizzled and popped. It expanded to seemingly fill the space just outside the garage door sized opening. It was intensely electric green and just became more diffuse. It was a foot or so in front of me and I retreated further inside.
It was terrifying. I just stood there until it dissipated. Probably seconds, but it felt like several minutes. I had already turned off the lights in the building, which was probably a lucky thing. Right afterward, it just rained like hell.
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